Cryptographic web service

A method in which a program uses a cryptographic web service remotely over a communications network, comprising:

• at program computing equipment on which the program is implemented, calling a local cryptographic function from the program;
• and
• calling a remote cryptographic function at the cryptographic web service by calling a local cryptographic function at the program computing equipment, wherein calling the remote cryptographic function comprises providing parameters for the local cryptographic function from the program including at least one identifier, encoding the parameters with a web services interface at the program computing equipment, receiving the encoded parameters with a web services interface at the cryptographic web service, decoding the encoded parameters with the web services interface at the cryptographic web service;
• at the cryptographic web service, requesting a key from a key server over the communications network using the identifier;
• at the cryptographic web service, receiving the requested key from the key server over the communications network;
• and
• at the cryptographic web service, producing results for the called remote cryptographic function using a cryptographic engine, wherein the results are produced by the cryptographic engine using the key from the key server.

A method in which a program uses a cryptographic web service remotely over a communications network, comprising:

• calling a remote cryptographic function at the cryptographic web service by calling a local cryptographic function at the program computing equipment, wherein calling the remote cryptographic function comprises providing parameters for the local cryptographic function from the program including at least one data parameter, encoding the parameters with a web services interface at the program computing equipment, receiving the encoded parameters with a web services interface at the cryptographic web service, decoding the encoded parameters with the web services interface at the cryptographic web service;
• at the cryptographic web service, analyzing the data parameter to produce analysis results;
• and
• at the cryptographic web service, producing function results for the called remote cryptographic function based at least partly on the analysis results.